scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Prescribed Fire Patterns in Washington State, USA

Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Harry Podschwit ◽  
Colton Miller ◽  
Ernesto Alvarado
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Washington State ◽  
Prescribed Fires ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Fire Use ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Western Portion

We investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of prescribed fire and wildfire within Washington State, USA using records from the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Spatiotemporal comparisons of prescribed fire and wildfire area burned revealed that (1) fire activity broadly differed between the eastern and western portion of the state in terms of total area and distribution of burn sources, (2) over the 2004–2019 period, wildfire largely replaced prescribed fire as the predominant source of burning, and (3) wildfire and prescribed fire occur during distinct months of the year. Spatiotemporal variation in prescribed fire activity at regional levels were measured using five parameters: total area burned, total biomass burned, burn days, burn approval rates, and pile burn frequency. Within-region spatial variability in prescribed fire parameters across land ownership categories and bioclimatic categories were often detectable. Regression models of the annualized prescribed fire parameters suggested that prescribed fire activities have been declining in multiple administrative regions over the 2004–2019 period. A descriptive analysis of seasonal trends found that prescribed fire use largely peaked in the fall months, with minor peaks usually occurring in the spring. Lastly, we described how area burned, biomass burned, and pile burn frequency differed between prescribed fires approved and denied by the DNR, and found that approved prescribed fires were typically smaller and burned less biomass than denied fires.

Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) Branch Pruning by Prescribed Fire

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P McGuire ◽  
John S Kush ◽  
J Morgan Varner ◽  
Dwight K Lauer ◽  
J Ryan Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Longleaf Pine ◽  
Wood Quality ◽  
Pinus Palustris ◽  
Planting Density ◽  
Prescribed Fires ◽  
Pine Tree ◽  
Southeastern Us ◽  
Tree Survival ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Efforts to restore longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) in the southeastern US require substantial artificial regeneration. Once established, important questions remain about when to introduce fire. We investigated the impact of initial planting density on tree branching and how prescribed fire might interact with tree architecture and survival. A particular focus was on how prescribed fires could “prune” lower branches. Lower density plantings (897 trees ha−1) had more and larger live lower branches than higher density plantings (2,243 trees ha−1). Fire was effective in pruning lower branches regardless of season burned, but fire in the growing season was more effective at pruning. Branches up to a height of 1.5 to 2 m were killed by fire. Fire applied in August caused greater damage with more needles scorched and/or consumed and more stem char. Prescribed fire did not impact longleaf pine tree survival. In general, fire applied to longleaf pine facilitated pruning lower branches that affect long-term wood quality, an additional argument for its utility in restoration and management of these ecosystems.

scholarly journals Effects of Seasonal Prescribed Fires on Residual Overstory Trees in Oak-Dominated Shelterwood Stands

1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Brose ◽  
David Van Lear
Keyword(s):  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Prescribed Fires ◽  
Red Maple ◽  
Crown Condition ◽  
Treatment Area ◽  
Yellow Poplar ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Overstory Trees

Abstract A study was initiated in 1994 to evaluate the degree of bole damage and crown decline residual overstory trees would experience because of prescribed burning of shelterwood stands. Three oak-dominated shelterwood stands, partially harvested 2 to 4 yr earlier, were divided into four treatments (unburned control, spring burn, summer burn, and winter burn). Fifteen permanent sampling points were systematically located in each 5 to 12 ac treatment area, and overstory trees were selected from these points with a 10 BAF prism. Before burning, each tree was evaluated for lower bole and crown condition and reevaluated two growing seasons after the fires. Hickory, oak, and yellow-poplar were largely unaffected by the winter and summer prescribed fires but displayed bole damage and crown decline following spring burning. American beech and red maple declined after all fire treatments. Fire damage to oak, hickory, and yellow-poplar was strongly associated to presence of logging slash near a tree's base. Directional felling or moving slash should minimize injury to these trees. This research will aid resource managers wishing to use prescribed fire in shelterwood stands to favor oak regeneration while minimizing damage to residual overstory oaks. South. J. Appl. For. 23(2):88-93.

scholarly journals Prescribed Fire Effects on Advanced Regeneration in Mixed Hardwood Stands

1998 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 138-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.A. Barnes ◽  
D.H. Van Lear
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Fire Effects ◽  
Hardwood Forests ◽  
Prescribed Fires ◽  
Oak Regeneration ◽  
Advanced Regeneration ◽  
Composition And Structure

Abstract Fire treatments were initiated in 1990 to evaluate effects of low-intensity prescribed fires on composition and structure of the advanced regeneration pool under mature mixed-hardwood stands on upland sites in the Piedmont of South Carolina. One spring burn was as effective as three winter burns in reducing midstory density, considered a prerequisite for subsequent development of oak (Quercus spp.) advanced regeneration. Burning increased the number of oak rootstocks, reduced the relative position of competing species, and increased root-to-shoot ratios of oak stems in the regeneration layer. These favorable effects of fire on oak regeneration outweigh the removal of small, poorly formed oak stems from the midstory/understory strata during burning. Prescribed burning in hardwood forests may solve some of the current oak regeneration problems, especially on better upland sites in the South. South. J. Appl. For. 22(3):138-142.

Impediments to prescribed fire across agency, landscape and manager: an example from northern California

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenya N. Quinn-Davidson ◽  
J. Morgan Varner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
Northern California ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
The Public ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Fire Activity

Though the need for prescribed fire is widely recognised, its use remains subject to a range of operational and social constraints. Research has focussed on identifying these constraints, yet past efforts have focussed disproportionately on single agencies and geographic regions. We examined constraints on prescribed fire by surveying a wide variety of organisations (including six state and federal agencies and several tribes, non-governmental organisations and timber companies) in northern California, a fire-prone region of the western United States. Across the region, prescribed burning annually covered only 38% of the area needed to fulfil land-management objectives, and 66% of managers indicated dissatisfaction with levels of prescribed fire activity. The highest-ranked impediments were narrow burn window, regulations, lack of adequate personnel and environmental laws. Impediment ratings differed among entities, with legal and social impediments of greater concern in the private sector than in the public, and economic impediments of greater concern in the state and private sectors than in the federal. Comparisons with the south-eastern United States, where similar research has taken place, point to important regional constraints on prescribed fire activity. These findings suggest further need for research spanning geographic and ownership boundaries, as prescribed fire impediments can vary by context.

Implications of changing climate for global wildland fire

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike D. Flannigan ◽  
Meg A. Krawchuk ◽  
William J. de Groot ◽  
B. Mike Wotton ◽  
Lynn M. Gowman
Keyword(s):  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Severity ◽  
Global Studies ◽  
Future Trends ◽  
Fire Occurrence ◽  
General Increase ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Linear Interactions

Wildland fire is a global phenomenon, and a result of interactions between climate–weather, fuels and people. Our climate is changing rapidly primarily through the release of greenhouse gases that may have profound and possibly unexpected impacts on global fire activity. The present paper reviews the current understanding of what the future may bring with respect to wildland fire and discusses future options for research and management. To date, research suggests a general increase in area burned and fire occurrence but there is a lot of spatial variability, with some areas of no change or even decreases in area burned and occurrence. Fire seasons are lengthening for temperate and boreal regions and this trend should continue in a warmer world. Future trends of fire severity and intensity are difficult to determine owing to the complex and non-linear interactions between weather, vegetation and people. Improved fire data are required along with continued global studies that dynamically include weather, vegetation, people, and other disturbances. Lastly, we need more research on the role of policy, practices and human behaviour because most of the global fire activity is directly attributable to people.

Effective fire suppression in boreal forests

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 772-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
S G Cumming
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Suppression ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Operational Effectiveness ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Large Fires ◽  
Northeastern Alberta

Fire suppression is (functionally) effective insofar as it reduces area burned. In North American boreal forests, fire regimes and historical records are such that this effect cannot be detected or estimated directly. I present an indirect approach, proceeding from the practice of initial attack (IA), which is intended to limit the proportion of "large" fires. I analysed IA's (operational) effectiveness by a controlled retrospective study of fire-history data for an approximately 86 000 km2 region of boreal forest in northeastern Alberta, Canada, from 1968 to 1998 (31 years). Over this interval, various improvements to IA practice, including a 1983 change in management strategy, created a natural experiment. I tested the results with multiple logistic regression models of the annual probabilities of a fire becoming larger than 3 and 200 ha. Annual fire counts (Nt) were a surrogate for fire weather and peak daily counts within years (arrival load). Measured by odds ratios, mean IA effectiveness against 3- and 200-ha fires increased in 1983 by factors of 2.02 (95% CI = 1.70–2.40) and 2.41 (95% CI = 1.69–3.45), respectively. Prior to 1983, the functional response to Nt was consistent with saturation of IA capacity at high arrival loads. From 1983–1998, effectiveness was independent of Nt. I introduce the proportional reduction in area burned (impact) as a measure of functional effectiveness and state conditions under which it can be estimated from the regression models. Over 1983–1998, if suppressed and actual fires were comparable, relative IA impact ([Formula: see text]) was 0.58 (95% CI = 0.34–0.74) and area burned was reduced by 457 500 ha. If fires larger than 1 × 105, 1 × 104, or 1 × 103 ha are assumed to be unpreventable, [Formula: see text] declines to 0.46, 025, or 0.08, respectively, but there is no evidence this is the case.

scholarly journals Useful Life of Prescribed Fires in a Southern Mediterranean Basin: An Application to Pinus pinaster Stands in the Sierra Morena Range

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 486
Author(s):  
Juan Ramón Molina ◽  
Macarena Ortega ◽  
Francisco Rodríguez y Silva
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Content ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Pinus Pinaster ◽  
Prescribed Fires ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Fuel Treatment ◽  
Fuel Dynamics ◽  
Useful Life ◽  
Fuel Moisture Content ◽  
Stand Characteristics

Prescribed fire is a globally relevant fuel treatment for surface fuel management and wildfire hazard reduction. However, Mediterranean ecosystems are adapted to low and moderate fires; hence, the useful life of prescribed fires is limited. Useful life is defined as the effective rotation length of prescribed fires to mitigate fire spread based on critical surface intensity for crown combustion. In this sense, the useful life of a prescribed fire focuses on surface fuel dynamics and its potential fire behavior. In Pinus pinaster stands, the useful life can be established between 0 and 4 years. Canopy base height, time elapsed from the burning, postfire precipitation, and fine fuel moisture content during the burning were identified as the most important variables in postburn fuel dynamics. Other stand characteristics and postfire precipitation can improve the fine fuel and live fuel dynamics models. Our findings support prescribed fires as an effective fuel treatment in the medium term for forest fire prevention, according to stand characteristics and burning implementation conditions. In this sense, forest managers can use the proposed decision tree to identify the useful life of each prescribed fire based on fine fuel moisture content during burning implementation.

scholarly journals Where there's smoke, there's fuel: predicting Great Basin rangeland wildfire

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph T Smith ◽  
Brady W Allred ◽  
Chad S Boyd ◽  
Kirk W Davies ◽  
Matthew O. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Ground Cover ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Fire Season ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Fire Activity ◽  
Fine Fuels

Wildfires are a growing management concern in western US rangelands, where invasive annual grasses have altered fire regimes and contributed to an increased incidence of catastrophic large wildfires. Fire activity in arid, non-forested regions is thought to be largely controlled by interannual variation in fuel amount, which in turn is controlled by antecedent weather. Thus, long-range forecasting of fire activity in rangelands should be feasible given annual estimates of fuel quantity. Using a 32 yr time series of spatial data, we employ machine learning algorithms to predict the relative probability of large (>400 ha) wildfire in the Great Basin based on fine-scale annual and 16-day estimates of cover and production of vegetation functional groups, weather, and multitemporal scale drought indices. We evaluate the predictive utility of these models with a leave-one-year-out cross-validation, building spatial forecasts of fire probability for each year that we compare against actual maps of large wildfires. Herbaceous vegetation aboveground biomass production, bare ground cover, and long-term drought indices were the most important predictors of fire probability. Across 32 fire seasons, >80% of the area burned in large wildfires coincided with predicted fire probabilities ≥0.5. At the scale of the Great Basin, several metrics of fire season severity were moderately to strongly correlated with average fire probability, including total area burned in large wildfires, number of large wildfires, and average and maximum fire size. Our findings show that recent years of exceptional fire activity in the Great Basin were predictable based on antecedent weather and biomass of fine fuels, and reveal a significant increasing trend in fire probability over the last three decades driven by widespread changes in fine fuel characteristics.

scholarly journals Wetter environment and increased grazing reduced the area burned in northern Eurasia: 2002–2016

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Min Hao ◽  
Matthew C. Reeves ◽  
L. Scott Baggett ◽  
Yves Balkanski ◽  
Philippe Ciais ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Fire Dynamics ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Fire Activity

Abstract. Northern Eurasia is highly sensitive to climate change. Fires in this region can have significant impacts on regional air quality, radiative forcing and black carbon deposition in the Arctic to accelerate ice melting. Using a MODIS-derived burned area data set, we report that the total annual area burned in this region declined by 53 % during the 15-year period of 2002–2016. Grassland fires dominated the trend, accounting for 93 % of the decline of the total area burned. Grassland fires in Kazakhstan contributed 47 % of the total area burned and 84 % of the decline. Wetter climate and increased grazing are the principle driving forces for the decline. Our findings: 1) highlight the importance of the complex interactions of climate-vegetation-land use in affecting fire activity, and 2) reveal how the resulting impacts on fire activity in a relatively small region such as Kazakhstan can dominate the trends of burned areas across a much larger landscape of northern Eurasia. Our findings may be used to improve the prediction of future fire dynamics and associated fire emissions in northern Eurasia.

scholarly journals Characterization of post-fire streamflow response across western US watersheds

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Saxe ◽  
Terri S. Hogue ◽  
Lauren Hay
Keyword(s):  
Regression Models ◽  
Flow Regimes ◽  
Peak Flows ◽  
Daily Streamflow ◽  
Area Burned ◽  
Low Flows ◽  
Relative Response ◽  
Streamflow Response ◽  
High Flows ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. This research investigates the impact of wildfires on watershed flow regimes, specifically focusing on evaluation of fire events within specified hydroclimatic regions in the western United States. Information on fire events and watershed characteristics were collected through federal and state-level databases and streamflow data were collected from U.S. Geological Survey stream gages. Eighty two watersheds were identified with at least ten years of continuous pre-fire daily streamflow records and five years of continuous post-fire daily flow records. For each watershed, percent change in annual runoff ratio, low-flows, high-flows, peak flows, number of zero flow days, baseflow index, and Richards-Baker flashiness index were calculated using pre- and post-fire periods. The gathered watersheds were divided into nine regions or clusters through k-means clustering and regression models were produced for watersheds grouped by total area burned. The coefficient of determination (R2) was used to determine the accuracy of the resulting models. Results show that low flows, high flows, and peak flows increase significantly in the first two years following a wildfire and decrease over time. Relative response was utilized to scale response variables with respective percent area of watershed burned in order to compare regional differences in watershed response. Watersheds in Cluster 9 (eastern CA, western NV, OR) typically demonstrate a negative relative post-fire response, in that when scaling response to area burned, a slight negative response is observed in flow regimes. Most other watersheds show a positive mean relative response. In addition, regression models show limited correlation between percent watershed burned and streamflow response, implying that other watershed factors strongly influence response.

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